After a fifty year
relationship with Omega U.K. Dennison was replaced as Omega’s principle
precious metals case maker by David Shackman & Sons of Chesham in
1968.Shackman continued to produce cases
for Omega until the Eighties, but many cases were imported directly from
Switzerland when the Gold Standard was dropped in the Seventies.

While it is not
uncommon to encounter a Shackman case housing calibre 564 Constellations of the
later nineteen-sixties, chancing upon a calibre 712 model 167.5435 (shown
below) is a far rarer experience.

The design of the 167.5435
is based on the calibre 712 model 167.021 (167.0021 in the Omega Database) produced
in Switzerland.The 167.021 was a direct
replacement of the calibre 551 powered 167.005 and catered for the growing
interest in ultra-flat cases. However Omega U.K. decided to dress up its
version of the case with a finely machined bezel, which elevates the design
into the ‘dress watch’ or ‘Montre Bijoux’ genre quite successfully.

The model featured here
and owned by AlanC was encased in the U.K. in 1969 as evidenced by the
hallmarks on the inner case back. The movement was produced in late 1968 and
was shipped with hands and dial to Omega U.K. The dial is 18 karat gold,
another British diversion from the Swiss norm. The dial features the OM stamps
at six o’clock, standing for ‘Or Massif’ and translates to ‘Solid Gold’ in
English. Omega used this mark on many, but not all, solid gold dials in the
later nineteen-sixties to distinguish between solid gold and other metal dials.

The addition of fancy bezel and solid gold dial
continued the Constellation “De Luxe” tradition for the British market only. Few
rather than many of these pieces were produced from nineteen-sixty-nine to
seventy-five, making them an ideal and eminently collectible addition to any
collection of British Constellations.

4 comments:

Very nice and as you say, quite rare now. There was an even more luxurious version with ref 367.5435 - basically the same watch but with a solid gold bracelet fitted as standard. I believe the bracelets were soldered onto the case and therefore fixed permanently.

I am a long-term collector of vintage Omega watches with a passion for Omega Constellations of the fifties and sixties. This blog is offered as an educational resource for potential and existing collectors who wish to learn more about the brand and avoid the traps and pitfalls of buying in a global market.